Jam #23 QUADRANTID SWARM + DFAM + Octatrack Modular Techno Live Jam

Patch notes below!

Couldn't resist making the most of my cat Haku videobombing this mix!

Just one change this week, stopped feeding the Swarm into the DFAM Ext audio to use the DFAM noise as part of the percussion. Patched the DFAM Pitch CV sequence to the Noise Level to control it independently of the kick rhythm. Mix is much better than last week as the master chain is working as it should do!
It's going to take me a few weeks to do a workflow video but I will get to it eventually, I do want to do it quite in depth.

Current rack - may be different to what is in this video as I am changing things around:
https://cdn.modulargrid.net/img/racks...

Patch notes:

Beatstep pro midi clock out to clock the Octatrack.
BSP drum sequence gate CV out to DFAM ADV/CLOCK to clock the DFAM.

BSP Sequences Quadrantid Swarm melodies/rhythms.
BSP Sequence Pitch out to Swarm Slew in, then Slew out to Freq CV in so I can control glissando, BSP Sequence Gate out to Swarm Trigger input.

Disting MK4 set to Clockable LFO, then goes into Befaco A*B+C to attenuate and offset the signal to my liking, using it to have the bass that rises and falls slowly. Output goes to the VCO2 CV on DFAM. The VCO2 Out from the DFAM goes to the doepfer wasp filter.

Erica Synths Pico Mix module mixes the following:
1: DFAM VCA out
2: Swarm Out
3: DFAM VCO2 Out (through the wasp filter)

This is so I can separate and mix the gate/enveloped DFAM outputs with the straight bass sounds, and sounds from swarm as I need.
These all go to the Lyra-8 FX for delay and distortion, and finally the calsynth typhoon (Clouds clone) so I can play around with pitch, stereo field, reverb and other textural things, output to OT A+B input.

The velocity sequence CV I’m using to sequence the drums on the DFAM is also routed out into the Befaco A*B+C to invert the signal and offset accordingly. The inverted CV goes into the Typhoon in VCA CV, which means when the sequencer is triggering the drums on the DFAM, it cuts out the amplitude of the input into the typhoon. This effectively makes a sort of sidechain effect, where no/less sound would be outputted from Typhoon which is the final output of my synth chain into the OT. The offset on the A*B+C acts as a volume knob in a way.

The other output goes direct to the OT C+D input, before the Typhoon so I can record without sidechain. I could just change the attenuation on the A*B+C but I don’t want to bother changing the sidechain knobs when recording the kick as it is something I’m likely to forget doing when recording, so I separated the process of recording kick loops and the synth loops.

On the OT I set the A+B input DIR to max so I always hear it. Before a loop is recorded the track level is set to 0, once I record a loop I turn off the Typhoon output while turning up the track level so it doesn’t double up the sound.

The C+D input is set to a scene where the DIR output is controlled by the crossfader, with two scenes for either recording the C+D input or muting it when playing back the drum loop.

The octatrack has 5 tracks for looping, each with a DJ EQ and Dark Reverb.
Then I have a track for 909 distorted claps which has a few slices for different velocities, a Snare drum track, and a 909 Closed and Open hihat track, again sliced for different velocities. On the hats track the LFO is also set to change the slice position, so it has a sort of random variation for different velocities and CH/OH. The Clap has a LFO for panning.

Stereo out straight to audio interface, slight EQ, compression and limiting and Drum Buss to bring the kick forward in Ableton for mastering/loudness.
If you got all the way down here congrats and thank you! Let me know if you’d be interested in a video walkthrough of the patch, and the OT setup – though the OT is based on a few youtube tutorials already available. I won’t unpatch everything to build the patch on video, but I can walk through slowly all the routings for the way I use it at the moment.

#Eowave #Quadrantid #Swarm #Techno